


Life and Death

by Tarlan



Category: Triangle (2001)
Genre: Angst, Death, Gen, Rebirth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-11-16
Updated: 2005-11-16
Packaged: 2017-10-20 18:07:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/215642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gus discovers there is more to death than loss of life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Life and Death

Forrest Barrow ran through the ship heading back through the darkened corridors towards the cabin where he had met his death. He could sense the man following him, the living man whose soul cried out to him in some mistaken belief that he was his brother but Forrest had no siblings.

Forrest could sense the pain in this man as he relived the tragic but far less violent death of his younger brother. Part of him insisted it was wrong to use this knowledge but he was so scared and this man could help him.

Whispers echoed through the ship, filled with malevolent thoughts directed at another living soul, one that had succumbed to the darkness within. The one following Forrest, called Gus, was so different from this other. Gus had a naiveté that kept the evil away from him, and an innate gentleness towards others that made the soul within him shine. Perhaps he would be the one to help Forrest escape the evil residing in this place.

Gus entered room 116 and Forrest slammed the door behind him, quickly moving furniture to stop the evil one from entering; the one called Stu. He hid under the bed, the only sanctuary he knew, the place where he tried to hide from his murderous father in the last minutes of his life.

Terror filled Gus's eyes and Forrest could sense the stuttered rhythm of his struggling heart as Gus groped inside a pocket. He pulled out a small canister; the little white pills scattered across the floor in his haste. Gus dropped to his knees, desperately trying to pick up one of the little pills. Forrest grabbed at his outstretched arm, pleading with him for help but he faded in horror as Gus's eyes glazed over in death, his heart giving out.

He had never meant to hurt him. All he wanted was for someone to save him, for someone to show him the way out of this frightening place where days and years merged into one. Forrest pressed his hands over his ears as he heard Gus's psychic cry when his soul freed from his body, the resonance echoing through the ship to be picked up by the other lost souls.

Even the living picked up the cry, with a man and woman racing in, desperate to bring Gus back to life but it was too late. Forrest could see Gus standing over the scene, his face distraught, softly begging them to bring him back but they could not. He slumped to the floor beside the bed as they rushed away, leaving his body where they had found it.

From his hiding place beneath the bed, Forrest sobbed, crying for his mama, and not understanding how she could have left him in this place all alone. He could sense her close by, had felt her presence so much stronger when the living woman had been in the room. The sense of her presence disappeared along with the lady, leaving him all alone again.

Forrest stopped sobbing as he saw the pair of legs standing beside the bed. He crawled out, watching Gus as he stared down at his dead body. The spirit of Gus was dressed identically to the way he had been in life, in strange baggy clothes that looked so out of time. Gus's eyes slid sideways towards Forrest, and Forrest reached out to him tentatively.

"You're not Kyle," Gus stated but there was no anger in his gentle face, only grief and wary compassion. Slowly, Gus reached back, taking Forrest's hand in his, as if he sensed that Forrest had never meant any malice towards him. The warmth of Gus's soul pushed away the coldness gripping Forrest, his soul tingling with gratitude after timeless fear and terror.

Gus pulled Forrest into his arms and held him tight and Forrest could sense him divining as much comfort in the embrace. He closed his eyes and basked in the warmth and security of another soul.

"I'm dead, aren't I?" Gus spoke in shock, his voice barely a whisper in the confines of the cabin. "I'm dead."

"I'm so sorry, mister. I never meant to scare you so bad. I..."

"Isn't there supposed to be a bright light? Don't we have to go into the light?"

Forrest frowned, recalling the hazy light just after his father struck him with the cricket bat. The yellow mist had smothered the light almost instantly.

"We have to get off this ship," Gus stated, grabbing Forrest's hand and drawing him out of the cabin and into the corridor beyond. "And we have to help Tommy get off this ship too."

Tommy. Yes, Tommy was the man who had tried to bring Gus back to life. Forrest had felt his grief so keenly when he realized it was too late. Had anyone grieved for him that hard? Perhaps his grandparents had cried for him but he could barely picture their faces now, even though so little time had passed since his death. Yet, how could it be so little time when he had overheard one of the living talk of years and years?

They raced through the creepy corridors, heading towards the hold where Forrest could sense the frantic calls of the two living people mingling with the cries of the dead who lingered with their former bodies. These two would die in there with them for even the heavy block and tackle could not dislodge the solid wooden broom handle that the possessed one had jammed into the opening mechanism for the door. They had no more leverage and their desperate attempts to break the wood made it impossible for Forrest to remove it for them.

"Help me," Gus called and he grabbed the wheel, adding his spirit strength to each lurch as Tommy and the woman, Charlie, tried to free themselves. The wood splintered and Gus assisted the unknowing exhausted Tommy in opening the door, standing back in the shadows as the living crawled from what would have been their tomb.

Other souls followed, including that of the lady killed by the possessed one.

"Julia?"

She turned to Gus with a wide-eyed, terrified stare, rushing towards him as soon as she recognized him. Other souls crowded around him too, left too long lingering the darkness and finding themselves attracted to the soft light surrounding Gus.

Peering into the hold, Forrest saw the mass of bones in the churning water. Bones that looked as if they had been picked clean over decades when it seemed as if so little time had past since that terrible day. How had they come to be there? Had the evil inhabiting his father killed them too?

"Tommy? Tommy? Charlie?" Gus called out but neither of the living seemed to hear his call or see him standing before them. He gasped as they raced right through him, eyes darting to Forrest. "Come on," he said, grabbing Forrest's hand once more. "We have to stay together."

****

Gus led Forrest and the other souls through the menacing ship, following on behind Tommy as the two living souls sought escape from 'The Queen of Scots'. He could not quite believe that he was, in fact, dead. He did not feel dead but then, he did not feel alive either. He could not feel the breeze in the air as he stepped topside nor could he feel the warmth of the sun on his face. He could feel the small hand clasped in his in a physical sense but it was unlike any human contact he had ever experienced.

Gus pulled back sharply as Stu arrived on deck, wielding a cricket bat that was already bloodied and matted with hair. He thought of Stu's lovely fiancée, Julia, understanding her terror when he realized how she lost her battle to stay among the living. He felt her draw closer to his side, seeking reassurance and security with him though he did not understand why.

Gus closed his eyes for a moment and concentrated on everything around him, sighing in despair when he realized that Captain Morgan was dead too. He felt a strange pulling sensation and looked over his shoulder, seeing Louis Morgan approaching him in trepidation. Louis stood at Gus's side, his large hands dropping onto the ghost child's shoulders reassuringly, saving a tiny smile for Gus as Tommy and Charlie fought Stu, sending him to his death.

He laughed shakily as Tommy and Charlie climbed off the ship, preferring to take their chances on the open seas in a dinghy rather than stay on this cursed ship but fearing the evil residing here had not finished with them yet.

Stu had been a friend for years and yet Gus feared him now. He feared the evil that had taken over Stu's body, terrified that it would hold onto Stu even in death. His fears were realized when Stu's ghost approached him with an easy smile, for Gus could sense the malevolence that would keep all of them locked into this Hell for eternity.

Below him, he felt the tremor as the ship turned, knowing the evil spirit was going after Tommy and Charlie, prepared to send them to a watery grave rather than allow them to escape its clutches.

A bright light heralded the first attempt by Tommy to set the ship ablaze using the flares in the emergency kit on board the dinghy; it fell short. A second landed in the sea, forced away by the psychic energy of the malevolence. Gus held the child closer to him, softly praying for his friend, and found an answer to his prayers as Louis charged Stu.

Gus knew what he had to do. As the final flare lifted high into the sky, he forced his will on it, lifting it upon the slightest breeze and drawing it in towards the ship even as the malevolence tried to push it towards the sea. Stu screamed as the flare struck the ship, igniting the fuel Tommy had spilled and sending flames rolling across the deck to ignite the fuel tanks.

Grabbing hold of Forrest tightly, he stood firm as explosions raged around them, feeling the death scream of the ship and its evil as Stu collapsed.

Clear eyes rose to Gus, now free of the evil spirit that had held him captive, and yet full of horror and despair for his actions while under its influence. He reached out tentatively and Gus grabbed his hand, knowing he could not condemn his friend to an eternity alone, willing to accept the faults within Stu that had allowed the evil to reside within him.

The press of other souls pushed against Gus, souls of the long dead who had not found the light, caught in the yellow fog of evil. As the ship began to break apart, sinking below the waves, the sun shone brighter, growing in intensity until it was almost too beautiful to gaze upon but Gus understood. He had read so many life-after-death experiences that he knew that this was the light.

"Come on," he said softly. "Don't be afraid."

Gus floated towards the light, holding tight to the boy's hand and feeling Stu's grasp still on his arm, leading the others. As he crossed the threshold, he felt the warmth on his face, felt the breeze in his hair and smiled in happiness when he saw Kyle waiting for him.

****

 **Two years later:**

Tom held the tiny baby in his arms, his grin faltering as he looked down into big blue eyes that, for one moment, seemed almost ancient rather than newborn. The moment passed as a tiny fist waved in the air and a weak newborn cry came from petal soft lips.

"Think someone wants his mama," Tom said softly and handed the baby to his wife, watching in awe as the tiny boy latched onto a nipple and began to feed.

Charlie looked up at him, a concerned look on her tired face. "Tom? Are you alright?"

He laughed softly. After thirteen hours of labor he should be asking her that question but, despite the tiredness in her eyes, she glowed with love and happiness. But then, Charlie was special and had been long before the day he first met her onboard the _Blue Jay_. She had invaded his dreams for weeks before that first meeting; a premonition of what was to come.

He still found it hard to believe that they had survived the terror onboard _The Queen of Scots_ but only the cranks and crackpots believed their story of being the only survivors from the _Blue Jay_. Four years had past during their single day caught in the Bermuda Triangle. Four years where four families grieved for the loss of their loved ones, for him and Stu, for Julia and for Gus.

"For just for a second, when I looked at him, I thought of Gus."

Charlie looked down at the baby cradled against her breast, suckling greedily, and she smiled. "I sensed him on the ship, after he... after he died. I think he was watching over you and... I think he saved us."

Tom nodded slowly, recalling the strange sensation of Gus being close as they tried to break out of the hold, and then again when he tried to destroy the ship.

"He was a good friend, you know." His gaze dropped to the tiny newborn. "He was funny, compassionate, smart, and generous to a fault... when he had any money," added Tom with a gentle laugh.

"Gus would be a great name."

Tom glanced up from the baby to his wife in surprise, knowing she had wanted to name the baby after the friend and surrogate father she had lost on that fateful day.

"Gus Louis Devane. Yeah, I'd like that," she said with a tired grin.

****

Hazy memories crowded through Gus's mind, of faces and places, of an evil destroyed and souls flying free to heaven. He recalled a small hand tucked into his, released only when the child's soul found his mother waiting for him on the other side of the bright light.

He had believed in reincarnation, believed that certain souls crossed paths over and over through time spending one lifetime as a lover, the next time as a son or a mother or a sister or brother... or just a good friend. He had been Tom's friend in his former incarnation and in this new life he would be his son.

As the midwife bustled about the newly reborn soul and his parents, the images and memories of the past began to fade until all that remained was the warmth of the living cradling his new body, and the glow of love surrounding him.

THE END


End file.
